These are excerpts from John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life.
"At these moments, when the trifling fog of life clears and I see what I am really on earth to do, I groan over the petty pursuits that waste so many lives—and so much of mine. Just think of the magnitude of sports—a whole section of the daily newspaper. But there is no section on God. Think of the endless resources for making your home and garden more comfortable and impressive. Think of how many tens of thousands of dollars you can spend to buy more car than you need. Think of the time and energy and conversation that go into entertainment and leisure and what we call “fun stuff.” And add to that now the computer that artificially recreates the very games that are already so distant from reality; it is like a multi-layered dreamworld of insignificance expanding into nothingness." pg 125
"How will it help me show that I do treasure Christ? How will it help me know Christ or display Christ? The Bible says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). So the question is mainly positive, not negative. How can I portray God as glorious in this action? How can I enjoy making much of him in this behavior?" pg 119
"Oh, how many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud—just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 videos in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend—woven around church (mostly). This is life for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for more, far more." pg 119
"It is one of the defining marks of Our Time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is ethereal but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God’s existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgment no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertisers’ sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness. It is a condition we have assigned him after having nudged him out to the periphery
of our secularized life. . . . Weightlessness tells us nothing about God but everything about ourselves, about our condition, about our psychological disposition to exclude God
from our reality." David Wells pg 121
Ponder these things today and ask yourself if you are wasting your life. Are you using the time God has given you on this earth to make much of Him or make "your" life comfortable?
DAW
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
True Love
"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was." John 11:5-6
What an interesting set of verses to explain the love of God. What a warped view of the love of God we have. This is the story of the death of Lazarus and Jesus raising him from the dead. While reading this passage this morning these two verses leaped off the page at me. They seem so paradoxical. Could it be that perhaps this was just a mistake in writing by John? (If you believe that then we must have an entirely different discussion) Absolutely not! We know that every word of Scripture is inspired by God. It is put together exactly as He desires and in this passage He is showing us how His love works. We have become so accustomed to this new definition of love that our culture has thrown on us that we can scarcely see the truth about love. We believe love to be an attempt at making another person happy. That is, we believe that we must say or do whatever we must to make someone feel good about themselves and us, even at the expense of the truth. We have dilemmas over whether to tell someone the truth at the expense of their feelings. Or to put it another way, we wonder whether it is better to tell someone a painful truth or let them continue in ignorant happiness. This is not love. This is not the love of God that is found in Scripture. God never withholds the truth from us or pain from us so that we may feel good. God allows such events in our life that we may see Him and find Him all satisfying. That is the case here with Lazarus. Jesus knew full well that Lazarus would die. He knew that Mary and Martha would grieve tremendously for four days before Jesus arrived. He knew that they believed all to be lost and would even be angry with Him for His delay. Yet "he stayed two days longer in the place where He was. Why? "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." So how is this love made manifest? Mary and Martha are weeping in anguish and Lazarus is dead. How is that loving? How can Jesus possible show His love from this? How could His delay possibly be loving? the answer is found in Jesus' reply to Mary and Martha one verse prior to verse 5. "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son may be glorified through it." What was Jesus' objective in this situation? It was their overflowing joy in the glory of God not their temporary happiness in seemingly "perfecting" their circumstances. What Mary and Martha wanted most was to be with their brother. The wanted him to have relief from His physical ailments. What God wanted most was to be wanted most. He wanted them to be able to say "though he slay me yet will I trust Him" He wanted them to see Him for who He is and find their ultimate satisfaction in Him. If took the death of Lazarus to do it, then so be it. If it took temporary pain to make eternal joy then so be it. We must not be so short sighted in our suffering but rather understand the truth of God's love. It always leads us to be satisfied in Him ALONE! Though there may be pain, there will be great reward because we will see the glory of the only begotten in whom the fullness of God is pleased to dwell. That my friends is love. God's revelation of Himself at the expense of temporary happiness. May we find Him more satisfying than anything this world offers, for that is what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ.
DAW
What an interesting set of verses to explain the love of God. What a warped view of the love of God we have. This is the story of the death of Lazarus and Jesus raising him from the dead. While reading this passage this morning these two verses leaped off the page at me. They seem so paradoxical. Could it be that perhaps this was just a mistake in writing by John? (If you believe that then we must have an entirely different discussion) Absolutely not! We know that every word of Scripture is inspired by God. It is put together exactly as He desires and in this passage He is showing us how His love works. We have become so accustomed to this new definition of love that our culture has thrown on us that we can scarcely see the truth about love. We believe love to be an attempt at making another person happy. That is, we believe that we must say or do whatever we must to make someone feel good about themselves and us, even at the expense of the truth. We have dilemmas over whether to tell someone the truth at the expense of their feelings. Or to put it another way, we wonder whether it is better to tell someone a painful truth or let them continue in ignorant happiness. This is not love. This is not the love of God that is found in Scripture. God never withholds the truth from us or pain from us so that we may feel good. God allows such events in our life that we may see Him and find Him all satisfying. That is the case here with Lazarus. Jesus knew full well that Lazarus would die. He knew that Mary and Martha would grieve tremendously for four days before Jesus arrived. He knew that they believed all to be lost and would even be angry with Him for His delay. Yet "he stayed two days longer in the place where He was. Why? "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." So how is this love made manifest? Mary and Martha are weeping in anguish and Lazarus is dead. How is that loving? How can Jesus possible show His love from this? How could His delay possibly be loving? the answer is found in Jesus' reply to Mary and Martha one verse prior to verse 5. "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son may be glorified through it." What was Jesus' objective in this situation? It was their overflowing joy in the glory of God not their temporary happiness in seemingly "perfecting" their circumstances. What Mary and Martha wanted most was to be with their brother. The wanted him to have relief from His physical ailments. What God wanted most was to be wanted most. He wanted them to be able to say "though he slay me yet will I trust Him" He wanted them to see Him for who He is and find their ultimate satisfaction in Him. If took the death of Lazarus to do it, then so be it. If it took temporary pain to make eternal joy then so be it. We must not be so short sighted in our suffering but rather understand the truth of God's love. It always leads us to be satisfied in Him ALONE! Though there may be pain, there will be great reward because we will see the glory of the only begotten in whom the fullness of God is pleased to dwell. That my friends is love. God's revelation of Himself at the expense of temporary happiness. May we find Him more satisfying than anything this world offers, for that is what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ.
DAW
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
More of Jesus
I want more of Jesus. I don't want more of His stuff and His "blessings." I want the person Himself. There is a deep longing in more heart right now for more of Christ. I feel the words of Peter when He said "to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life." John 6:68 There is too much in the world that would draw the evil desires in me and pull my life into destruction. I want Jesus. I need Him yes, and that need could never be put into words, but I want Him as my treasure. I want to see Him in His glory. I want to experience His holiness. I want to know what it is like to be in the presence of God so strongly that you feel as if you will die if you stay any longer.
(Isaiah 6) I want to abide every second in the presence of my dangerous but good King. I need Him yes, but I desire Him also.
DAW
(Isaiah 6) I want to abide every second in the presence of my dangerous but good King. I need Him yes, but I desire Him also.
DAW
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Who is your teacher?
For those of you who know me and those that don't but read this blog, you have by now come to see that I have been heavily influenced by the teaching of John Piper. God has greatly used Dr. Piper in teaching me His word. I have come to see that thinking is the means to understanding. Simple yes I know but all to often we ( and I mean me) just expect that if we read the Bible, no matter how cursory it may be, that that will be enough to grasp the truths of Scripture. That is not the case. God desires us to think (meditate) on His word day and night. Psalm 1. So there is no doubt that Dr. Piper has been and continues to be very influential in this area.
With that said I feel I must make a point here that I have been convicted of in recent days. I must never set Dr. Piper or anyone else in the seat of ultimate teacher in my life. Let me explain what I mean. There can come a tendency in our lives that we set someone up to be of great influence in our lives and mistakingly make them to be god. Even if they have been used by God to show us more of Himself we, as humans, can make them out to be something they are not. For example, we could perhaps interpret Scripture based on their understanding of the Bible and not God teaching us through the power of the Holy Spirit. You might ask the question, what is so wrong with getting their view on Bible interpretation. Nothing as long as you are not using them to do the work that God desires to do in you. In other words, if you would rather read men's books to grasp an understanding of Scripture than to read the Bible and think about it yourself then you are setting yourself up to be deceived. Men are fallible, all men. No matter how great they may seem to be and no matter what impact they have had on your life they are capable of being wrong. So the best thing to do is ask God to be your ultimate teacher. God wrote the book and if anyone can teach us it would be Him. Seek first God and His word, because it is absolute truth, then go to the secondary sources. We should never put man in the place of primary teacher in our life because they did not write the Scripture, God did. Go to the source. Do not just blindly believe everything that you may hear someone say. Study the Bible. Think (meditate) on the Bible and allow God to teach you first. Then utilize those whom He has also taught to help you when you need it.
It is our responsibility and our pleasure to read the Bible and know the God who redeems us. God wrote His Word not to primarily give us a list of rules to follow but rather to reveal to us who He is. It is only when we see who He is that we will change. When you get a glimpse of the holiness of God for example you will begin to hate sin more and more. A view of the cross in light of God's holiness reveals the severity and gruesomeness of sin. So read the bible and know God. Pray that He would be your primary teacher. Then go to other sources once you have thought it through. God has given us tremendous teachers to assist in pointing us in the right direction but he never means for those teachers to take his place in our lives. Seek Him first through His Word!
DAW
With that said I feel I must make a point here that I have been convicted of in recent days. I must never set Dr. Piper or anyone else in the seat of ultimate teacher in my life. Let me explain what I mean. There can come a tendency in our lives that we set someone up to be of great influence in our lives and mistakingly make them to be god. Even if they have been used by God to show us more of Himself we, as humans, can make them out to be something they are not. For example, we could perhaps interpret Scripture based on their understanding of the Bible and not God teaching us through the power of the Holy Spirit. You might ask the question, what is so wrong with getting their view on Bible interpretation. Nothing as long as you are not using them to do the work that God desires to do in you. In other words, if you would rather read men's books to grasp an understanding of Scripture than to read the Bible and think about it yourself then you are setting yourself up to be deceived. Men are fallible, all men. No matter how great they may seem to be and no matter what impact they have had on your life they are capable of being wrong. So the best thing to do is ask God to be your ultimate teacher. God wrote the book and if anyone can teach us it would be Him. Seek first God and His word, because it is absolute truth, then go to the secondary sources. We should never put man in the place of primary teacher in our life because they did not write the Scripture, God did. Go to the source. Do not just blindly believe everything that you may hear someone say. Study the Bible. Think (meditate) on the Bible and allow God to teach you first. Then utilize those whom He has also taught to help you when you need it.
It is our responsibility and our pleasure to read the Bible and know the God who redeems us. God wrote His Word not to primarily give us a list of rules to follow but rather to reveal to us who He is. It is only when we see who He is that we will change. When you get a glimpse of the holiness of God for example you will begin to hate sin more and more. A view of the cross in light of God's holiness reveals the severity and gruesomeness of sin. So read the bible and know God. Pray that He would be your primary teacher. Then go to other sources once you have thought it through. God has given us tremendous teachers to assist in pointing us in the right direction but he never means for those teachers to take his place in our lives. Seek Him first through His Word!
DAW
Monday, October 27, 2008
Your focus when standing at the foot of the cross
I began thinking this past week about the cross and its deep meaning in my life, for without it I have no hope either in this life or the next. It hit me however that people have a very different view of the cross based on their thinking. Allow me to explain. There is a way of thinking among Christians today that would look at the cross as a means of finding value in themselves. For example the would say things like this, "This cross reminds us how valuable we are to God. It should cause us to think about how much we are worth if Jesus would go that far to save us." This my friends is a dark and prideful way of viewing the cross of Christ and the pouring out His life on our behalf. The cross should never cause us to feel good about ourselves in the sense of raising our self esteem. If it does then when have failed to see the truth of the gospel and have not been saved. That may seem to be a strong statement but I stand behind it and wish to show from the Bible why I believe it to be true. If we seek to find value in ourselves at the cross we can not find value in Christ. We put our glory above His. In doing so we have missed the most fundamental element of the cross' necessity, namely, sin. It was for sin that Christ died. It was because of our desire to do all we could to defame His glory that He chose to give His life on our behalf. Consider this description of us before Christ redeemed us. "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." Romans 1:28-32 Or perhaps this description "If while we were enemies of God..." Romans 5:10 Or perhaps this description in Ephesians 2:1-3 "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." These verses (and many more throughout the Bible) don't give us much cause to raise an alarm of our goodness and inherent value. Which is exactly the point. The point of the cross was not to show us our value but God's. It was to show His beauty and His glory. If we look to the cross and see our value then there may as well be no cross. If we are worthy of such a deed from God then why would we need it to begin with. The beauty of the cross is that it shows us the extreme love of God for those who hated Him and the extreme wrath of God on our sin, and the extreme justice of God to not wink at our sin and wipe it away but to take the punishment for our sin on our behalf while we were still sinning. The cross shows us the severity of our sin. If you look into the bloody and beaten face of Christ and say to Him "thank you for showing me my value" you have missed the glory of the cross. When we see the bloody and beaten face of Christ it should draw us to our knees in repentance and cause us to shudder at the unexplainable glory of the only begotten who gave His life not for the valuable but for the condemned, helpless enemy, me. It was my sin that He chose to give His life for and that shows His glory. Let us fix our eyes on Christ not on ourselves. When we approach the cross may we see God as supremely valuable not ourselves. We put Christ on the cross. His love for His Father stayed Him there. The justice and wrath of God was poured out on Him and now and only now are we called His friends. I urge you to go to the cross to see the glory of God not your glory, for if you seek your own glory you find that you will have all eternity to find out why you were wrong.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Desires and Distractions
A few days ago I wrote in my blog about television and the reasons for which my wife and I decided to do away with it. I stand behind those reasons fully but I desire to go deeper and examine the real reasons the entertainment industry can stifle our relationship with Christ. Let me begin by saying that this is a personal conviction but one that I think is widely shared among us. I am not saying that doing away with television is right for everyone but I am STRONGLY recommending that we each seriously contemplate and evaluate its status in our lives. With that said let us begin.
About a year and a half ago I took a trip to New Orleans for school. I had to go down and take some classes and the best (and cheapest) place to stay was on campus in the dorms. So myself and four other guys got a dorm room to stay in for the week. One night during the week my friends decided to go out and eat and spend some time seeing New Orleans. I elected to stay behind because I was quite fatigued and just wanted to turn in early. As I sat in this dorm room with no telephone or TV I found myself doing what was good and right to do. Reading and spending some much needed time with God. To this point in my life the most I had ever been able to read at one time was about thirty minutes and it was tough going. I had problems concentrating and comprehending what I was reading. I had even been to a doctor to see if there was something that I could take to help me concentrate and focus more. Well you can imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw that two hours had passed and I was not wanting to quit. I began to ask myself what was going on. How was it possible that I was able to sit for that long and read without having the slightest difficulty in comprehension. Then it hit me. There were no distractions. There was nothing there that was tugging at my heart to cause me to follow after it. It was just me and God and the book he had provided to change my life. I would love to say that the reality of that moment hit me so hard that I immediately removed my television from my life. I would love to say that my wife is the one that wanted it and that is why we kept it for another year and a half. Neither are true. The truth is that when I arrived home I still desired to entertain myself with television. I did not at that time see God as more valuable. In fact at that time I had no idea that that was wrong. I felt convicted to remove tv but rationalized and justified my way into keeping it. That was not the end for God in this discussion. In the past year and a half He has being showing me more and more that anything that we desire more than Him is an idol. But truth be told in our mind we say that I don't desire anything over God because I don't want to be and idolator and lets face it, I don't have any statues in my house that I worship. Well for me that was not the case. I did not have any statues but I had plenty of things that caused me to not long after God. So here is a good test for determining what we desire more than God. 1. Do you have a daily time with God? If not then ask yourself why. What is in my life that is more valuable than spending time with the most valuable being that exists? What is keeping me from drinking the living water? What has so temporarily filled me that the perfect God is not appetizing? 2. If I am having a daily time with God or any time with God for that matter, what draws me away from that time with Him? For example, for me it is entertainment. When I am spending time with God I feel a pull to go do other things such as watch a show I have been withing all week to see or play my xbox while my son is asleep. It is as if there were a hook in my heart that I have bitten down on and is now pulling me away. That is nothing short of and idol. There are also those times where I have thought things like this. " I know that right now is a good time to spend with God and I hear Him calling but I am just going to finish this show and then I will do it. At that point, whether you do it or not, your heart has been revealed. You have just seen that that show holds more value in your heart than Christ. These are the convictions of my heart.
The riddance of television is not the only answer however. The heart is quick to find some other dung hill to wallow in. That is exactly what I find myself doing even now. I no longer have television service but I find myself just popping in DVD's to entertain me and bring me pleasure. Is not God more valuable than that? Is my vision of God so minuscule that I can not find Him more desirable than a movie? The answer is yes. My vision of God is that small and that is to my detriment. God has given and sustained His word to reveal to me who He is and yet I find joy in learning of fictional characters for an hour and a half. I would rather get to know someone who does not exist than to know the Christ who made me. My desires are warped. This should not surprise us. The Bible tells us clearly about our desires in James chapter four. "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people.!" Does it strike you as odd that James here calls us adulterous. Often we overlook that verse with this kind of thinking. "I have not committed adultery with anyone." That is a false statement. You may not have been an adulterer in a sexual relationship but we all are guilty of adultery in our relationship with Christ. John Piper said "Whatever lures your affections away from God with deceptive attraction will come back to strip you bare and cut you to pieces. It is a horrifying thing to use your God-given life to commit adultery against the Almighty." So the issue is not simply tv. I wish it were that easy. The issue lies much deeper than that. What do you find yourself enjoying more than you enjoy God? The answer to that question will lead you to the alter of worship to your god. Whatever you desire more than Jesus is indeed your god. We must ask ourself this tough question not just to feel convicted but so that we may repent. Let us see God as more valuable than the dung of this world. Let us fix our eyes on Christ not a screen. May our hearts be filled with joy at the thought of spending three hours with Him more than spending three hours in a movie theater or a football game. Let us be excited and overjoyed at the prospect of speaking with and hearing from the one whose voice created all we see. Let us draw near and know the God that formed us out of dirt and gave us life through Jesus. "Whom have I in Heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you." Psalm 73:25 Pray that I would desire Him more than anything and take pleasure in sitting at His feet and I will pray the same for you.
DAW
About a year and a half ago I took a trip to New Orleans for school. I had to go down and take some classes and the best (and cheapest) place to stay was on campus in the dorms. So myself and four other guys got a dorm room to stay in for the week. One night during the week my friends decided to go out and eat and spend some time seeing New Orleans. I elected to stay behind because I was quite fatigued and just wanted to turn in early. As I sat in this dorm room with no telephone or TV I found myself doing what was good and right to do. Reading and spending some much needed time with God. To this point in my life the most I had ever been able to read at one time was about thirty minutes and it was tough going. I had problems concentrating and comprehending what I was reading. I had even been to a doctor to see if there was something that I could take to help me concentrate and focus more. Well you can imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw that two hours had passed and I was not wanting to quit. I began to ask myself what was going on. How was it possible that I was able to sit for that long and read without having the slightest difficulty in comprehension. Then it hit me. There were no distractions. There was nothing there that was tugging at my heart to cause me to follow after it. It was just me and God and the book he had provided to change my life. I would love to say that the reality of that moment hit me so hard that I immediately removed my television from my life. I would love to say that my wife is the one that wanted it and that is why we kept it for another year and a half. Neither are true. The truth is that when I arrived home I still desired to entertain myself with television. I did not at that time see God as more valuable. In fact at that time I had no idea that that was wrong. I felt convicted to remove tv but rationalized and justified my way into keeping it. That was not the end for God in this discussion. In the past year and a half He has being showing me more and more that anything that we desire more than Him is an idol. But truth be told in our mind we say that I don't desire anything over God because I don't want to be and idolator and lets face it, I don't have any statues in my house that I worship. Well for me that was not the case. I did not have any statues but I had plenty of things that caused me to not long after God. So here is a good test for determining what we desire more than God. 1. Do you have a daily time with God? If not then ask yourself why. What is in my life that is more valuable than spending time with the most valuable being that exists? What is keeping me from drinking the living water? What has so temporarily filled me that the perfect God is not appetizing? 2. If I am having a daily time with God or any time with God for that matter, what draws me away from that time with Him? For example, for me it is entertainment. When I am spending time with God I feel a pull to go do other things such as watch a show I have been withing all week to see or play my xbox while my son is asleep. It is as if there were a hook in my heart that I have bitten down on and is now pulling me away. That is nothing short of and idol. There are also those times where I have thought things like this. " I know that right now is a good time to spend with God and I hear Him calling but I am just going to finish this show and then I will do it. At that point, whether you do it or not, your heart has been revealed. You have just seen that that show holds more value in your heart than Christ. These are the convictions of my heart.
The riddance of television is not the only answer however. The heart is quick to find some other dung hill to wallow in. That is exactly what I find myself doing even now. I no longer have television service but I find myself just popping in DVD's to entertain me and bring me pleasure. Is not God more valuable than that? Is my vision of God so minuscule that I can not find Him more desirable than a movie? The answer is yes. My vision of God is that small and that is to my detriment. God has given and sustained His word to reveal to me who He is and yet I find joy in learning of fictional characters for an hour and a half. I would rather get to know someone who does not exist than to know the Christ who made me. My desires are warped. This should not surprise us. The Bible tells us clearly about our desires in James chapter four. "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people.!" Does it strike you as odd that James here calls us adulterous. Often we overlook that verse with this kind of thinking. "I have not committed adultery with anyone." That is a false statement. You may not have been an adulterer in a sexual relationship but we all are guilty of adultery in our relationship with Christ. John Piper said "Whatever lures your affections away from God with deceptive attraction will come back to strip you bare and cut you to pieces. It is a horrifying thing to use your God-given life to commit adultery against the Almighty." So the issue is not simply tv. I wish it were that easy. The issue lies much deeper than that. What do you find yourself enjoying more than you enjoy God? The answer to that question will lead you to the alter of worship to your god. Whatever you desire more than Jesus is indeed your god. We must ask ourself this tough question not just to feel convicted but so that we may repent. Let us see God as more valuable than the dung of this world. Let us fix our eyes on Christ not a screen. May our hearts be filled with joy at the thought of spending three hours with Him more than spending three hours in a movie theater or a football game. Let us be excited and overjoyed at the prospect of speaking with and hearing from the one whose voice created all we see. Let us draw near and know the God that formed us out of dirt and gave us life through Jesus. "Whom have I in Heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you." Psalm 73:25 Pray that I would desire Him more than anything and take pleasure in sitting at His feet and I will pray the same for you.
DAW
Friday, October 10, 2008
The identity of the Antichrist
Recently I have had some people asking me about the identity of the Antichrist. It seems that some believe a certain presidential candidate to be the one. In the next couple of paragraphs I hope to explain what I think the Biblical stance on this issue to be. But first let us make the assumption that the Antichrist is known to us. People tend to view this as very frightful and something we must fight against. I am not sure that is the proper conclusion to draw. I have three reasons why. 1. To assume we know the identity of the Antichrist is to assume more than the Bible tells us. I am certain that if God believed that we needed to know who the Antichrist is he would have put it plainly in Scripture. There is a reason for the confusing nature of Daniel and Revelation. We are not meant to know certain things. 2. If the Antichrist is here then to be blunt, there is nothing we can do to stop his rise to power because it is ordained by God. 3. If the Antichrist is here we should rejoice in knowing that very soon we are going to be with Christ.
However, these things are not of chief importance. The book of revelation is not simply a revelation of end times. It is a revelation of Christ in the end times. It is a display of His power in the worst time in world history. It is a glorious revelation of his absolute sovereignty over the events of men and Satan. Nothing happens without His first giving permission for it to take place or his ordaining it to happen. It shows how futile it is for Satan and all who follow him, to attempt to in any way "overthrow" God. One such way He shows this futility is by speaking a single word at the battle of Armageddon and all those who oppose Christ are destroyed. So my point is this. If we only read books such as Daniel and Revelation in an attempt to discover a secret timeline to the final days of this planet, we are reading them for the wrong reason. Those books are in the Bible for the same reason as any other book. They exist to reveal to us who God is. In light of that I would say that if we are spending more time trying to determine who the Antichrist is than who the real Christ is we may be in real danger of not recognizing either. The Bible was meant to show us God in all His glory and then to instruct us how to live in light of such a revelation. Let us live to that end. That we may know Christ and make Him known. When the earth fades and the enemy is vanquished and we are standing before God what will be important to know? The identity of the Antichrist or the identity of the real Christ?
DAW
However, these things are not of chief importance. The book of revelation is not simply a revelation of end times. It is a revelation of Christ in the end times. It is a display of His power in the worst time in world history. It is a glorious revelation of his absolute sovereignty over the events of men and Satan. Nothing happens without His first giving permission for it to take place or his ordaining it to happen. It shows how futile it is for Satan and all who follow him, to attempt to in any way "overthrow" God. One such way He shows this futility is by speaking a single word at the battle of Armageddon and all those who oppose Christ are destroyed. So my point is this. If we only read books such as Daniel and Revelation in an attempt to discover a secret timeline to the final days of this planet, we are reading them for the wrong reason. Those books are in the Bible for the same reason as any other book. They exist to reveal to us who God is. In light of that I would say that if we are spending more time trying to determine who the Antichrist is than who the real Christ is we may be in real danger of not recognizing either. The Bible was meant to show us God in all His glory and then to instruct us how to live in light of such a revelation. Let us live to that end. That we may know Christ and make Him known. When the earth fades and the enemy is vanquished and we are standing before God what will be important to know? The identity of the Antichrist or the identity of the real Christ?
DAW
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